Fighters Only

Issue 148

December 2016

Will mixed martial artists rally to the cause and change the face of the sport?

One of the most fascinating fights I’m keeping tabs on involves one of the most controversial areas of MMA – a fighter’s union.

Highly influential American sports agent Jeff Borris taking on the UFC in his quest with the Professional Fighters Association (PFA) in the coming months has the hallmarks of a heavyweight ding-dong.

Borris vs. UFC could turn into a series of battles royal.

We know how this scenario has played out in recent years. It’s never gone the way of the fighters. In fact, it has rarely ended well for those speaking out. But this could be different.

Just as MMA develops into a major player on the sports frontier, the UFC grows more corporate and rivals such as Bellator expand, the weight of fighters’ opinions will eventually break the seal.

Employers will always be powerful.

But employees have rights beyond payment, healthcare and so on. The moment may be coming for fighters, where a union may be able to represent and air grievances.

Fighters need a voice other than a back story and their fists.

And they may now have found the right exponent. Borris has some track record. The renowned agent and attorney has represented hundreds of Major League Baseball players over the past 30 years and negotiated more than $1 billion in contracts, which includes breaking the salary barrier multiple times.

Yet Borris has his work cut out if he’s to succeed securing signatures down the ranks of fighters who feel they would be endangering their futures by stepping into his line.

Borris has already laid out his plan in stages. The PFA will aim to have an executive board of fighter representatives for each weight class and an agent advisory board.

Borris said it may take a year to obtain the required number of fighters to create a vote to unionize or, perhaps more importantly, for the UFC to recognize the union.

That may take at least around 350 – around 60% – of the UFC’s contracted fighters to do so, in order to have the pull it will require.

Borris advises the Ballengee Group in legal matters, the sports agency that represents Nate Diaz.

Borris said Diaz’s contract for his contest with Conor McGregor at UFC 196 was “baffling” in some of its detail on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour, and revealed that UFC president Dana White “scoffed” at the idea of a union for its fighters.

Sounds like battle lines being drawn.

The UFC is already facing a challenge, thus far unsuccessfully, from the MMA Fighters Association (MMAFA), which has tried to enforce boxing’s Muhammad Ali Reform Act on the sport.

In the view of Borris, athletes aren’t being compensated fairly. The UFC classes fighters as independent contractors, yet he argues they’re employees.

He states because the UFC tells fighters who, when and where to fight, and what to wear, a court of law would see them as employees.

Should one uphold that opinion, it would change the landscape.

The major challenge facing the PFA, however, is getting enough fighters to sign up. The agent says fighters must unite, or face being in the same position forever.

They need to take their fearlessness in the Octagon outside of it.

“If they’re divided, the UFC wins. The fighters’ rights are gonna continue to be trampled upon for many years to come,” is his view.

It’s going to be a compelling, battle, make no mistake. There will be casualties, no doubt, but like all things, change will come.